The Ring Cycle

A correspondent writes:

I was wondering if you could help me with a particular issue. Several years ago, I had purchased an engagement ring for the obvious reason. At that time, I had asked a close person friend of mine who is a priest to bless the ring. I am not sure what blessing he had placed or said over the ring. To my fortune, the marriage never took place and I am still in possession of the ring.

A more appropriate opportunity has arisen and I would potentially like exchange the blessed ring for another distinctively different ring. As an aside, I would feel awkward giving the same ring to a different girl. I believe it to be unfair. I hope you can see my point.

Would it be a mortal or venial sin, a sacrilege or scandal against the church or God if I exchanged the blessed ring knowing that the blessed ring will eventually be sold in the market place?

The Code of Canon Law is not as detailed as one would like regarding the disposition of blessed articles in situations such as you describe. Nevertheless, it seems possible to determine a reasonable course of action. Here are the relevant points:

  1. Canon law does not discuss how blessed articles lose their blessing, though it indicates that they can (cf. Can. 1269).
  2. Canon law does discuss how blessed (technically, dedicated) places lose their status.
  3. In the absence of an express discussion of point #1, the logical way to understand how articles lose their sacred status is by analogy to point #2.
  4. Places can lose their sacred status (a) by major destruction, (b) by being relegated to secular use by the competent ordinary, or (c) by being relegated to secular use in fact (Can. 1212).
  5. By analogy, you can exercise option (c) and relegate the ring to secular use in fact, simply by choosing to do so. (Or you can throw it into Mount Doom, if you wish.)
  6. Once the ring has been relegated to secular use, you can exchange it or do whatever else you would want with it.
  7. The relegation of a thing to secular (lit., "profane") use for a just cause (which you clearly have in this case) is not sinful, otherwise the option would not be provided for in the law.
  8. In case it helps, the law distinguishes relegating a sacred thing to profane (secular) use from relegating it to sordid use. The former is allowed, while the latter is not (Can. 1222 ยง1). You are interested in the former, not the latter.

As a result, it seems that you can simply relegate the ring to secular use and then exchange it in good conscience.

Hope this helps, and God bless you!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

2 thoughts on “The Ring Cycle”

  1. Question:
    I hear different things about simony as it pertains to blessed items (I am not opposing your above article):
    1. Any selling of a blessed item would be simony –hence to sell an item that is blessed is a sin.
    or
    2. If you charge MORE for the item because it is blessed it is a sin but not otherwise for one is selling only the material item.
    This is of interest because people often sell old sacramentals (and they may not even know if they were blessed). What is the case?

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